Christmas at Stark Tower
by ILOVEJESSENGLAND
Summary: Tony invites the gang round for their first Christmas together as a group, just a fun festive inspired story, hope you like :)
1. Chapter 1

**So getting in with the festive Spirit, decided to write a small little Christmas story about the Avengers, hope you guys enjoy**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Avengers, at all. Not even one. **

**Christmas at Stark Tower**

"I have to say Tony, when you invited us all around for dinner, this wasn't what I was expecting to see…" Clint gasped in wonder as he stared at the table mounted with numerous vegetable dishes.

"What?" Tony replied indignantly over his shoulder, "I invited you over for a CHRISTMAS meal, what were you expecting?"

"Takeaway boxes"

Tony jumped in surprise at the new voice, turning to stare at Natasha, whose head had just appeared peeping over the side of a sofa a few feet away from the dinner table.

"When did you?! Did you know she was already here?!" His head switched frantically between the two assassins, "Of course you did," he added, rolling his eyes at Clint's smirk.

"Relax Stark, I thought you knew that we regularly nap in here?" Clint winked at the genius, patting him on the shoulder and grabbing a carrot from the table and walking over towards the sofa where Natasha was sat.

"Well that's very comforting…" Tony muttered under his breath before turning his attention back to the Turkey, "Jarvis…you know how to cook this…" He paused for a second, before gesturing with both hands at the gigantic bird, ".._**beast**_, right?"

"Absolutely sir, heating the oven now," boomed the overhead computer voice.

"Great," Tony grinned as he slid the turkey into the oven, "and Pepper thought I couldn't handle this year without her cooking! Ha, now," he reached into the fridge, retrieving a bottle of champagne," onto the good stuff!"

Natasha rolled her eyes as he waltzed over waving the champagne in front of him like a trophy but lifted one of the six glasses already out on the coffee table in agreement. Clint did the same a wide grin on his face,

"Drinking at two in the afternoon, I could get used to this 'Christmas Spirit' stuff," he acknowledged as he eyed Tony filling his glass to the brim.

Tony took a step back at Hawkeye's comment, an animated expression of shock on his face as he looked at Clint and then to Natasha, expecting her to be surprised at his comment also, but instead finding her expressionless and downing her champagne.

"Don't tell me you guys have never celebrated Christmas?" the billionaire asked as realisation hit home.

They both shook their heads, and Natasha held out her glass for more drink,

"Spies don't tend to celebrate any holidays, takes focus off the staying alive part of the job," she grinned at Clint as she added, "although we try to make the exception for Fury's birthday."

Clint smiled back at her, as Tony passed back her re-filled glass he couldn't help but notice how their host now looked slightly uncomfortable and raised his glass towards him,

"No pressure on making our first Christmas a good one, eh?"

Tony managed a small awkward laugh as he raised his glass back at Clint before gulping the liquid in one go, and walking away towards the appliances.

"So when are the others due here?" Natasha called to him from over the room.

"Cap and Bruce should be here any minute now, Thor…well whatever time the Hammer Express pulls into town"

"What's the matter Stark, disappointed that Thor is stealing your act of always being last to a party?"

Tony's face instantly lit up at the sound of his 'Science-Bro's' voice, as Bruce walked into the room, followed by an embarrassed looking Steve, both of whom were clutching wrapped items.

"Sorry that we're late guys, the traffic downtown is terrible," he muttered running a hand through his hair in a nervous motion.

"Calm down Cap, and come join us for a drink," Natasha smiled at the soldier, motioning for him to come over and join her and Clint.

Steve raised an eyebrow, and checked his watch, frowning slightly,

"It's 2.10pm…"

"Ahh come on Cap, it's **Christmas**!" Clint piped up, and Natasha couldn't help but grin and shake her head at her partner, as Steve shrugged his shoulders and walked over to sit with them, leaving Tony and Bruce to catch up. He watched as Clint poured the alcohol into a clean chute glass for him,

"Hope you haven't been waiting too long for us to get here," he small-talked, nodding his head in thanks as Clint passed him his drink.

"Not at all," Natasha replied, "We were more than content winding Tony up before you got here."

"Nat even had a little nap in here, just to freak him out more," Clint smirked, receiving a frown from his partner. Cap looked at Natasha carefully; she didn't look like she'd been asleep. In fact, she looked as pristine as always, both of the assassins did. Clint was dressed in a black shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, paired with dark jeans, and although casual looking, Steve still assumed he could leave the building and carry out an undercover assignment without needing to change. Natasha on the other hand was wearing a festive print oversized jumper, with tight fighting jeans, not exactly an outfit that would blend in, and one frankly that surprised him; he had not expected the spy to own any Christmas clothing.

Natasha noticed his lingering eye on her jumper, and smiled sadly,

"Coulson gave it to me for Christmas last year, thought it would be appropriate."

Steve nodded, not knowing what to say, and raised his glass in a toasting gesture. Clint and Natasha followed suit, and the three sipped their champagne in a silent toast, but all the while Natasha kept her gaze on Steve's hands, still cautiously grasping onto the package he had brought with him. Without saying a word she stood up and walked in front of where he was sat, holding her hands out. She arched an eyebrow as Steve instinctively drew his hands away from her ever so slightly,

"Don't worry Steve, she's not gonna read who it's for," Clint chuckled, "she's only wants to put it under the tree."

"Oh," Steve laughed back slightly, glancing at the small pile of presents, "sorry, I just, well I haven't done this properly in a long time…" he handed her the parcel along with a wonky smile.

"You're not alone there," she called back to him over her shoulder as she waltzed over towards the tree. It was huge, easily eight feet high, and decorated to the max with all different coloured tinsel, baubles and lights.

"Well…that's, erm, definitely the most colourful tree I've ever seen…" Steve mused, hypnotised by the sight.

"Some might say over decorated," Natasha noted as she sat back down next to Clint, who bit his lip to supress a chuckle,

"We think that this is the first year Tony's been allowed to decorate the tree without Pepper's tasteful supervision."

Steve grinned back at the master archer as Tony's voice boomed across the room at them,

"I heard that! Tell me one thing that is not tasteful about that tree?"

"It looks like a Disney Princess barfed all over it," Natasha deadpanned, which aroused laughter from the room, from everyone except Tony.

"Agent Romanoff…"

"FRIENDS!" Tony was cut off by the booming voice of Thor who raced through the door, a large wrapped bundle in his hands, "Man of Iron! Hulk Friend!" he grabbed the two scientists in a lung-squeezing embrace, before turned to face the others, "Captain! Barton-son! Lady Widow!" He bowed, prompting Natasha to roll her eyes. As he lifted his head, Thor caught sight of the tree,

"What is this?! It is **marvellous**!" Thor beamed from ear to ear as he approached the tree, "It resembles the remains of our demolished rainbow bridge in Asguard!"

"Okay, maybe it's a bit much…" Tony muttered in a quiet voice, which lead to everyone except a baffled Thor laughing.

**I hope you like it so far, I will be adding Chapter 2 tomorrow **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for all the great feedback, and here is Chapter 2 , enjoy **

"Do we begin our exchanging of the gifts now?" Thor was practically bouncing in his seat with excitement.

"Chill out Asterisk," Tony grinned, pausing a moment to savour the looks of despair on the faces of everyone who understood the pun, and confusion on those who didn't, before reaching down beside the arm of the sofa he was sat on and placing Thor's winged helmet on his lap; before sipping his drink, "it's all under control".

The others looked at him confused, particularly Thor,

"At what point Iron friend did you acquire my helmet?"

"You meant to tell me you didn't leave it here at a memento of our time together?" Tony cooed, causing even more confusion for the demi-god.

"Stark, is there a point to this?" Clint asked, raising one eyebrow quizzically.

Tony rolled in eyes in a mocking action,

"No Barton, I just thought that this would be a wonderful time for 'show and tell'. Look, just follow my lead," Tony reached into the helmet and plucked out a folded piece of paper. He placed the small square of paper onto his lap, and passed the helmet to Bruce, who was sat next to him.

Bruce scanned the group quickly, before raising an eyebrow at Tony, who only smiled in response. Shrugging his shoulders slightly, the doctor reached into the helmet apprehensively and similarly grabbed one piece of paper, before passing the helmet to the next member of the team.

Clint was next, still confused as to what the pieces of paper were for, but never the less he continued the pattern of selecting a piece of paper and handed the helmet over to Natasha.

"No!"

Natasha froze in mid-air, her hand poised just ready to dive into the helmet, and stared at Tony, waiting for an explanation. He shook his head at her,

"No, sorry I didn't mean you, I was yelling at Bird-Brain here not to open his slip of paper until everyone else has one," he jerked his thumb in Clint's direction, who stuck his tongue out in response. Directing a small glare at Tony, Natasha continued with her selection of the paper, before offering the helmet to Steve. After Thor had selected the last piece of paper from the helmet, everybody opened up their choice, but they only looked more puzzled, except for Tony of course. The gang turned to stare at him expectantly,

"What?" He feigned surprise with a grin, clearly milking the confusion of everyone else at his game.

"You mind telling us what the point of all this is Stark?" Natasha sighed, "You better not be rearranging the 'Secret Santa' selections, you already made us do that and we've all bought our presents now?" she glowered at the playboy.

Clearing his throat slightly under her glare, Tony cleared his throat and set his empty tumbler on the table,

"Okay sourpuss I'll tell, but only because you asked so nicely," he blew Natasha a mocking kiss, and Clint quickly put his hand on her leg to stop her from rising to Tony's jest, "Yes, we already have randomly picked out 'Secret Santa's', you should all have a number on your slips of paper. I thought we'd make present opening a bit more fun and go in a random order. So, who has numero uno?"

Thor grinned, eagerly waving his ticket of paper above his head.

"Well MC Hammer, you get to go first then."

Thor rose from his seat and strode over to the tree, carefully examining the names on each gift before grabbing the smallest wrapped box and returning to his seat. The present looked tiny in Thor's large hands, and he took care not to crush it.

"What am I to do with this offering now?" he paused, his brow creasing as he examined the haphazardly wrapping.

"You unwrap it Thor," Bruce said kindly with a chuckle.

The demi-god's face lit up with excitement as he ripped away the paper, revealing a small rectangular object. Puzzled he gazed round at the others as to what he should do next,

"Why don't you try touching it?" Steve encouraged, curious as to what Thor's gift actually was.

Thor pressed his thumb to the surface of the rectangle, and immediately it sprung to life. A holographic projection appeared from what had now become a screen, and displayed the images of Jane Foster and the other Avengers except Thor.

"This is some kind of…communication device?" this time the question was clearly directed at Tony, who nodded his head, grinning at the opportunity to talk about his creations,

"Sure is, it's programmed to link straight with your doctor friend," he winked at Thor, before smiling at Bruce, "well both of them technically, along with the rest of us. I figured this way you get to chat to Jane even when you can't see her."

Thor's grin went from ear to ear, as he got up to hug Tony in appreciation for his present.

"Uh, how about we try a hand shake this time, my ribs are still reattaching themselves after your squeeze earlier," Tony held his hand out to Thor, who shook it vigorously.

"Many thanks Stark-son! This device is greatly appreciated!"

"You're welcome, big guy," Tony grinned as he watched Thor return to his seat, "Who's got the next golden ticket kids?"

It was Steve's turn to raise his piece of paper this time, the number two clearly scribbled on it in black marker. Tony made a flamboyant gesture towards the tree with both his arms, and Steve got up, shaking his head slightly in laughter at how serious their host was taking his duties. He surveyed the five parcel remaining under the tree, and found his to be a large rectangle shape, covered in gold embossed paper and complete with a bow ribbon on the top. It was reasonably heavy too, he found as he carried it back to his spot on the couch. Slower than Thor had, but still with the same effect to the wrapping paper, Steve tore away until there was none left. His face brightened instantly as he discovered encyclopaedias and numerous history journals on his lap, and eagerly studied the blurbs for each. He lifted his gaze, and it wandered between Bruce and Natasha, the only two he presumed would have given him these gifts,

"Thank you…." He paused unsure of who to direct the comment at, until Natasha raised one hand slightly with a smile,

"I hope you like them," she absent-mindedly curled a stray lock of hair around her finger as she spoke, "I thought they'd help get you back up to speed with everything you missed."

"They're wonderful," he smiled back at her, "Honestly thank you."

"You're welcome Cap," she grinned, and only Clint could tell she was slightly relieved.

Bruce stood up from his seat next, waving his ticket in Tony's face as he walked over to the overbearing tree. He had been able to identify his present from where he was sat, and quickly retrieved the small circular green parcel. Sitting back down, he took care when opening his present, the only one who had displayed any real restraint so far. He let out a small chuckle as he held up a small, green stress ball, with an angry face drawn on it,

"Now, I would have suspected Tony," Bruce adjusted his glasses as he inspected the squeezable object, "but since he's already given a gift, I'm going to have to guess this is from you Clint?" he grinned at the archer to his left, who was clearly attempting and failing to stifle laughter.

"I couldn't resist," Clint nodded, giggling away to himself, as he reached under the cushion he was sat on and handed Bruce a bigger, squarer present, "Merry Christmas Dr. B."

Bruce opened the new, also green wrapped present and wide eyed inspected the bundle of clothes that were now in his hands. The colours were perfect, a couple of purple shirts, some khaki pants; Clint had clearly been paying attention to Bruce's favourite style and colours of clothing. Checking the label, Bruce grinned at Clint once more,

"I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that you know my clothing sizes, but thank you Clint, I always seem to be running out of clothes for some reason…"

Clint winked back at him,

"Had a feeling that could have been the case."

Everyone paused, waiting for the next person to stand up and claim their present. Natasha and Clint exchanged a look, before turning to stare at Tony. Jumping out of his seat, Tony pointed at himself in a completely over the top manner,

"Oh, it's my turn!"

Racing over to the tree, Tony selected the tallest of the three gifts left, and staggered back over to where he had been sat. Settling the parcel on his lap, Tony disappeared, popping his head round the side of the towering gift to be seen,

"Well, somebody definitely loves me," he grinned at Natasha, before realising she had already given a gift, and switched his vision between Bruce, Steve and Thor, "And who said 'Bromance' was dead?"

He began to attempt unwrapping his gift while on his lap, but eventually was forced to put the colourful tower on the floor.

"And someone clearly loves cello tape too…" he muttered as he struggled to find an entry point into the present. Finally ripping a way through the covered gift, Tony's face filled up with a mega-watt smile. At his feet, was a stack of comic books, reaching up to around his knees, all of which were written about Iron Man. Thor grinned as Tony reached for the first book excitedly and began flipping through the pages,

"It would seem some Midguardians have a fascination with the adventures of you and your suit of Iron."

"Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I can lead a pretty exciting life at times," Tony chuckled, "but thanks big guy, this is awesome!"

"And then there were two," Clint winked at Natasha as he rose to stand up, but Bruce and Steve quickly stood before he did, and signalled for him to sit back down. Clint did so, but not before sharing a quizzical look with Natasha. Steve cleared his throat, as Bruce walked over to stand beside him,

"As you two were quite hard to buy for…"

"Y'know, with your actual lives and hobbies a mystery to us," Bruce cut in, retrieving the last two presents from under the tree and smiling at the two agents.

"…we decided to team up to get your gifts," Steve continued, as Bruce passed the smaller of the presents to him, "So, Merry Christmas!"

Both men held out their presents simultaneously, Steve handing his to Natasha, and Bruce handing his to Clint. The spies both accepted the gifts with a smile and thanks, before opening them. Although they both opened their presents in about three seconds flat, the others had to laugh at how Clint had shredded his wrapping paper, while Natasha had nimbly prised hers off, the wrapping paper completely intact. The pair looked at each other, wide grins on their faces, before turning to their respective Secret Santa and thanking them. Clint held up his new toy bow, and expertly aimed a foam arrow at the fairy on the top of the tree, madly grinning like a child on Christmas morning as the decoration leant heavily to one side from the blow. Natasha then held up her matching toy pistols, one in each hand, and expertly shot a foam dart from each, causing the decoration to flutter down to the floor.

"Fantastic idea," muttered Tony as he jumped up to retrieve the fallen angel, " let's give the two assassins more weapons to torment me with," he paused, staring up at the tree, and then turned round with a slightly defeated look on his face, holding the small angel out in front of him,

"And how on earth am I going to get _Pep_ back on the tree?"

**Hey, so that was the gift giving section of the festivities done, I'm considering including another chapter with a little bit about how good (or bad) Tony's cooking is going to end up? What do you guys think?**


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm gonna have to go get my suit back on now…" Tony grumbled as he placed the angel decoration on the arm of the nearest sofa.

"I did wonder how on earth you got her up there in the first place," Bruce mused as his eyes scaled up the gigantic tree

"Hold on Tony," Steve called after the billionaire, who was on his way out of the room, "I'm sure we can find an easier way to put, uh, _'Pepper'_ back on the tree." He turned to look at Natasha, who stood up in canon with him and the pair walked over to stand in front of the towering tree,

"Sure you don't wanna do this with one of the guys?" Natasha joked, hands on her hips as she surveyed the tree, "Thor perhaps?"

Steve grinned, holding his hands together just below Natasha's waist level, palms facing the sky. Swiping the angel from off the furniture, in one fluid movement she raised her right leg, planting her foot solidly into his hands, and positioned her right hand onto his shoulder to balance, carefully cradling the decoration in her other hand. Effortlessly Steve raised his arms, separating his palms to accommodate Natasha's 180' turn, so the left side of her body was now facing the tree. Natasha towered over the tree now, and nimbly seated '_Pepper'_ back in her position on the top of the tree, before back-flipping down to the ground.

"Show off," Tony muttered as he walked past her and sat down next to Bruce.

"Well everyone has to have a party trick," Natasha purred, grinning as she followed Steve back to their seats also, "You're welcome Tony."

Before Tony could argue back a loud ringing resounded around the room; causing everyone to stare at the ceiling and all around.

"Is that some kind of warning that the Turkey is on fire?" Clint smirked at Tony.

"Relax Barton, it's just my cell," Tony dug into his pocket to retrieve his noisy mobile, the ringing had digressed and now 'Eye of the Tiger' was playing.

"Novelty choice Stark," Clint winked, playing imaginary drums along to the tune.

"It's personalised," Tony grinned back, and pressed the phone to his ear, "Well if it isn't my favourite handicap, personally phoning your favourite genius for Christmas, I'm touched."

The grin on Tony's face slowly disappeared, and Fury's barks could be heard by the others through the receiver. Holding it away from his head, and putting his finger in his other ear, Tony waited for the yelling to quieten,

"_Stark! Are you listening to me?!"_

Positioning the phone back towards his ear, Tony began speaking again,

"Uh, yeah I'm paying full attention to you Captain Fury," he added signalling to the others that he could be a while and leaving the room.

Steve stood up immediately at Tony's exit and rushed over to the appliances.

"Captain, what are you doing?" Thor called out, his confusion mirroring the others.

"I'm checking on this bird," Steve answered, pulling the oven door open, "Oh boy…." he mumbled in horror. The others jumped out of their seats and ran over to stand with Steve. In his hands, was a tray containing a horrible pinkish lump. Although parts of the turkey had begun to turn white, there seemed to be a slimy texture to the meat.

"How appetising,…" Bruce frowned as he took in the sight of their meal.

"Am I correct in assuming that this is not the traditional way Midguardian Christmas Turkey is supposed to look?" Thor questioned, peering at the turkey closely, and lifting up a soggy leg.

"This is not how ANY turkey is supposed to look," Clint replied giving it a gentle poke.

"Jarvis!" Bruce called out to the machine, "How did this happen I thought you were in control of cooking the turkey?"

"_I was sir, but Mr Stark manually overrode me. I believe he wanted to specifically cook this dish himself."_

"If he wanted to poison us, surely the champagne was a more subtle way to go?" Natasha added.

"How much do we fix it?" Clint chirped in. The others all turned to look at him astonished,

"Well," Steve scratched his head as he surveyed the bird, "making it edible might be a start…"

"Yeah, but we don't wanna make it look _**too**_ good," Clint reminded his team mates, "we want Tony to believe he made this…"

Natasha nodded her head in agreement to her partner's words,

"Clint's right," her face contorted into a grimace, "Pepper showed me a picture of a meal he made her once," she continued, shaking her head in an attempt to rid her mind of the image.

"And how edible was that Lady Widow?" Thor enquired, his eyes still fixated on the turkey.

"Barely…." Natasha shuddered, "if at all."

"Well," Steve started rolling up the sleeves of his red checked shirt, "we all know how hard Tony has been trying to make this Christmas special for us all, it's the least we can do to help him along with his cooking."

"You think we have enough time to fix this?" Bruce asked Steve.

Clint elbowed Natasha in the ribs gently, before answering Bruce with a smile,

"Sounded like Fury's gonna be chewing his ass for a while…"

"You guys would not **believe** the chat I just had with our Cyclops friend!" Tony declared as he waltzed back into the room.

"Not wishing you a Merry Christmas then?" Natasha asked with a small smile.

"Not even close Romanoff," Tony clapped his hands dramatically onto his lap as he sat down, his eyes widening, "The turkey!" The others watched as Tony raced to the oven and yanked the door open. Despair soon melted away to pride as he removed a golden looking turkey from the appliance,

"What did I tell you? Look at this beauty," Grinning he placed the turkey in the middle of the table, before looking up at the others, "Avengers Assemble, dinner is served!"

Smiling to each other, the ready of the team made their way to the table, taking their seats as Tony carved the turkey and dished slices onto the six plates.

"Well Tony, I have to say I'm impressed," Clint smiled at their host, who by now was beaming,

"What can I gentlemen and Natasha, Tony Stark is not just a pretty face."

Thor, Steve, Bruce, Clint and Natasha all exchanged an amused look, but didn't say anything to dampen Tony's glee.

"Oh Tony I forgot to ask," Clint grinned, dishing a mountain of parsnips onto his plate, "What did Fury call you about earlier?"

"It was outrageous; he called to yell at me about giving him some kind of distasteful Christmas present!" Tony accidentally flung a spoonful of peas at Thor as he spoke, who managed to dodge them all.

"What did he say you bought him?" Natasha asked in a butter-wouldn't-melt manner.

"A bejewelled eyepatch!" Tony proclaimed, "I mean, I wish I had thought of that, but why would Director _**Fun**_ assume I gave it to him?"

Everyone shrugged innocently, until Clint could hold back his laughter no more. Erupting in a loud snort, he dipped his head towards the table, his shoulders slumping up and down as he convulsed with laughter. Tony eyed Clint and Natasha suspiciously, his eyes narrowing between the two assassins. Natasha replied to his glare with a smile and lifted her glass,

"Merry Christmas!"

**That's it guys! Sorry if this chapter seems rushed but I wanted to get it done before Christmas! Thanks to everyone who has read/reviewed/favourite this story and have a good one everybody! **


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